This is a fascinating research piece by Fastcodesign’s MARK WILSON that takes into account a macro view of the patent portfolios of both Apple and Google and charts them into these visually amazing graphics. The deeper questions that should also be asked are what are the benefits, risks, or weaknesses to these divergent strategies. Both firms has clearly done exceptionally well over the past decade but what else can we learn and provide to other emergent companies.

Google and Apple are both hyper-successful companies, but chart their patents, and they have completely different innovation signatures.

Steve Jobs has been granted 347 patents in the past decade, many awarded posthumously. By contrast, Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page only have a combined 27 over the same period.

It’s a telling statistic about how Apple and Google operate differently. Apple is driven largely by a centralized development structure, stemming from its fabled design studio, whereas Google has a more distributed, open-source approach to new products. And to get a real picture of how this plays out organizationally, the Portland-based data visualization studio Periscopiccreated a series of visualizations custom for Co.Design, which compares “innovation signatures” charting the last 10 years of patents filed at Apple and Google.